Again this year, Darkpaw Games is continuing a many-year tradition of having volunteers raise money for charity while playing games. For the second year in a row they have announced in-game incentives to go hand-in-hand with the fundraising. Those who donate will receive in-game rewards later in the year, those who join the team and raise funds will receive in-game rewards later in the year, and everyone who plays will receive in-game rewards in November based upon the amount of money the entire team raises. The Extra-Life 2023 Incentives Announcement has many of the details.

To answer some of the more commonly-asked questions:

• Donate $5 or more to any member of the Darkpaw Games team and you are on the list to receive incentives. If things work like last year, the first round of incentives will be sent in mid-November-ish, using the donation numbers received November 6. Any donations added between then and the end of the year will receive their incentives in early January, (based on donations received between Nov. 7 and Dec. 31) when a second tally is done. Your email address from the donation will receive mail when the donations are tallied will receive all appropriate keys when the rewards are distributed.
• You do NOT have to join the team if all you want to do is donate. Pick someone on the Darkpaw team list and donate, and you are on the donor list for incentives. If you wish to raise money from friends, family and co-workers, you are more than welcome to join the team, of course!
• Extra-Life is the gamer-run charity arm of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, and all funds go to the designated Children's Miracle Network Hospital. Many of us from Darkpaw have the fabulous Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego as our target hospital. Others that live in other regions will likely be raising funds for a Children's Miracle Network Hospital that is closer to their home.
• Just to make it extra-clear, once you donate, there is nothing more that you need to do to earn your rewards. When the tallies are done after game day, email will be generated with the proper account keys, and sent to the email address that you used for your donation. You can then claim on your account of choice if you have more than one account, gift the key information to another if you don't want the rewards, etc.
• The "Group Milestone" awards listed in the linked post will be available for everyone in the game, not just for donors, and the level will totally depend on how much Darkpaw raises as a team by November 6.

August 10, 2023 - Oceansfull and Links

Oceansfull is now live. You have until the end of August 23 to do all your Oceansfull questing AND your Summer Jubilee shopping and questing.

The long-neglected links page has been cleaned up to remove defunct links, and I have added a few Mum links at the bottom for those who are interested.

August 08, 2023 - Past Expansion Marketplace Bundles!

Did you miss some of the earliest expansions for EQ2, and mourn because you missed some of the extra goodies that came along with the expansion bundles at the time? Are you yearning for your very own original baby dragon? Did you miss out on the carnivorous pet, or some of the wrapped paintings? Expansion bundles are on the Marketplace for Shattered Lands, Desert of Flames and Kingdom of Sky/Echoes of Faydwer for a limited time. You have until August 22 to purchase these items. More details can be found here.

August 03, 2023 - Twitch Time

I am trying to dip my foot in the shallow end of the streaming pool in preparation for Extra Life game day later in the year. (Fundraising has already begun, but will really ramp up as November's Game Day approaches.) So, tonight I will be working on the Gathering Obsession line on a Test alt. I will be streaming it on Twitch, and welcome people dropping in and saying hello, chatting, etc. as I work my way up through the harvesting tiers for a couple hours. You can find the stream, starting at 7 p.m. Pacific on my twitch channel. I have no clue yet if this will be a regular event or not, but we will give it a try tonight.

August 03, 2023 - Oceansfull 2023 On Test

The Oceansfull 2023 event is now on the Test server and will go live on August 10. The linked article also contains a tiny silent video of the two items that have animated effects, since neither effect displays in image preview mode.

July 11, 2023 - All-Game Downtime and Event Extension

From Daybreak:

We will have a global downtime on 7/12 starting at 6 a.m. PT and lasting approximately 4 hours. This affects game logins, commerce, and authentication services. Read-only access on forums and websites will be possible. Please watch our socials for updates!

Since this impacts the last day of the Scorched Sky event, they have also announced the following:

Scorched Sky Celebration and Triad of Elements will now be deactivating on 7/13 at 11:59 PM PDT.

June 28, 2023 - Update on Extended Maintenance

The all-game extended maintenance that was scheduled for June 28 had to be rescheduled. Instead, tomorrow will be a more normal 4 hour (or less) patch downtime starting at 7 a.m. Pacific.

June 27, 2023 - Extended Downtime and Scorched Sky Preview

All EverQuest II servers, Test server, and services, will be taken offline for scheduled extended maintenance on Wednesday, June 28, 2023 at 5:30 a.m. PT*. This affects login, commerce, and authentication services. Read-only access on forums and websites will be possible.... The estimated downtime is expected to last until approximately 11:00am PT.

This is a company-wide downtime for (hardware/network) maintenance, not just an EQ2 patch downtime, and will affect other Daybreak games as well.

Meanwhile, Scorched Sky will begin on Thursday and the Summer Jubilee dungeon, Triad of Elements, will also reopen. Details on Scorched Sky can be found here and you can refresh your memory on the Jubilee with this article.

June 05, 2023 - Tinkerfest! Jubilee! Plumes!

The summer event brouhaha has begun! Today marks the launch of Tinkerfest, Summer Jubilee 2023 and the arrival of the first plumes for the new event slot. There are also the free Pride familiars to claim on all your alts if you have not done so already. In addition to the Tinkerfest writeup, and the Jubilee writeup (that includes basic information on the plumes), I have also threw together a YouTube walkthrough of the new Jubilee instance for all levels, as there is an achievement from running it ten times in order to unlock your first plumes AND your tradeskill plume recipe book on the Jubilation vendor. Go forth and run amok!

June 02, 2023 - Free Pride Familiars!

Past Pride familiars have returned to the Marketplace, along with three new ones. They are free to "purchase", meaning there is no cost associated with them, but you have to actively go into the Marketplace and grab them. Each of your characters has until July 9, 2023 at 11:59 pm (Pacific) to claim these.

May 23, 2023 - Awwoooo, Summer Jubilee!

This Tawny Slobberer fluff pet is scampering around to tell everyone about the Summer Jubilee 2023 event. Check it out!

May 21, 2023 - Tinkerfest on Test!

I am hard at work on the Summer Jubilee 2023 article. Meanwhile, for your eye-candy pleasure, here is the information regarding the new items for Tinkerfest 2023.

May 17, 2023 - Memorial Day Bonuses

From Daybreak:

As we inch closer and closer to summertime (can you believe it?!), it’s almost time once again to celebrate the warmer days as we also remember all the heroes who have come and gone. Starting at midnight PDT, May 23, 2023, jump in game and enjoy these bonuses:

Live Servers

• Double earned Renewal Talent, Imperial Hero's Mint, Imperial Adventurer's Mint, and Mira Miracula currencies
• 20% discount on previous seasons' Familiar Packs
• Limited-time Familiar training drops

Kael Drakkel

• Double all earned currencies

Varsoon

• Double Hunter’s coins

Zarrakon

• Double XP

It’s about to be that time of year when you show your own bravery and valor in honor of those who showed it in days past. EverQuest II’s Memorial Day Celebration ends on May 30, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. A hearty /salute to all and have fun!

April 25, 2023 - Pirates!

For those who have not completed the "Pirates!" part of Raffik's timeline, the details are at the bottom of the Shipwrecked!" article. This will need to be completed before you can obtain Rakira's quests for new amalgamation recipes.

April 25, 2023 - May 25 Patch

Here are the patch notes related to crafting and housing for the patch tomorrow:

• Added "Tour" button to "For Sale" tab.
• When choosing to visit a house that you have friend or trustee access with, the UI will now show a "Visit" button more clearly in the UI.
• Added a speculative fix for when you consumed a deed then clicked "Buy" on a house the UI may not refresh properly (display only issue).

• The Sparking Innovative Bracelet and the Sparking Innovative Bangle can now be equipped on the right wrist as well as the left wrist, so both can be worn at the same time.
• The Sparking Innovative Pouch can now be equipped in the ranged slot.
• The Sparking Innovative Censer should now be able to be equipped.

• The "Destroy Vessel" recipe in the Shard of Hate: Utter Contempt [Heroic] no longer has the option to be completed via blueprint.
• In the quest "Takish Delight: Tickety BOOM" Gnorbert should now properly ask for samara fruit from the treants.
• Kael Drakkel Server: The recipe for "Enhanced Cloth Faydark Miracle Gloves" can now be crafted.
• There should no longer be red tradeskill shiny collectibles in heroic-only rooms in the Buried Takish'Hiz: Empire of Antiquity. The mixed solo and heroic content of the Elddar Exchange will still have the red shinies.
• In case of component loss, a crate containing another bag of broken tools will appear to the left of the crafting table in the Artisan's Ancilla when players are on "D.I.R.T.Y. Jobs - The Right Tools"
• "D.I.R.T.Y. Jobs - The Right Tools" will no longer allow you to craft the pickaxes before the shovels, preventing the quest from deleting the components before you are finished crafting the shovels.
• Rakira, mother to the intrepid ratonga Raffik, has traveled to the Isle of Mara to visit her son and would be happy to help out the crafters that rescued her family.
• Rakira can be found on the docks of the Village of Shin for those who meet the requirements.
• Level 100+ crafters who have completed the "Pirates!" quest for Raffik will now have access to four new quests to obtain recipes for artisan's amalgamations using resources from Plane of Magic through Vetrovia.>/li>
• Each quest will require completion of the quest before it as well as a certain minimum crafting level:
• "Amalgamations for All: Plane of Magic" requires level 100 tradeskill and completion of "Pirates!"
• "Amalgamations for All: Surrounding Knowledge" requires level 110 tradeskill and completion of "Amalgamations for All: Plane of Magic"
• "Amalgamations for All: Luclin Largesse" requires level 120 tradeskill and completion of "Amalgamations for All: Surrounding Knowledge"
• "Amalgamations for All: Vetrovian Verdure" requires level 125 tradeskill and, yep, you guessed it, completion of "Amalgamations for All: Luclin Largesse" Corrected an issue with recipe sending that could wipe out recipes from the list on the client.

April 20, 2023 - Helpful GU Hint

Protip Reminder: If you run into a mission where you think you are missing one of the needed components, please, before you submit a /bug, be sure to always check your chat messages and/or your bags to see if the component just might be sitting there waiting for you to unpack it. :D

April 11, 2023 - Tuesday Update

The game will be down for approximately 5 hours tomorrow (Tuesday), starting at 7 a.m. Pacific. During this time, not only will Echoes of Faydwer unlock for the Varsoon server, but Game Update 122: Empire of Antiquity will go live. You can find patch notes here. I will have a writeup regarding all the crafting goodness from the GU posted sometime tomorrow.

April 11, 2023 - Empire of Antiquity!

The game is back up from downtime, and Empire of Antiquity is live. Want to check out the tradeskill-specific content? check out this GU122 Tradeskill Guide!

I hope we nailed it!

April 09, 2023 - New Guildhall

The upcoming Game Update (GU) will have a guildhall that can be earned via a guild achievement, and it is utterly GORGEOUS! Ocarinah has put together a video tour for you.

April 07, 2023 - Hop. Hop. Hop.

It is time to hop into Beast'r!

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